Auto Suggestions are available once you type at least 3 letters. Use up arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+up arrow) and down arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+down arrow) to review and enter to select.

Overview

Christian Wolff by Michael Hicks, Christian Asplund

In this first interpretive narrative of the life and work of Christian Wolff, Michael Hicks and Christian Asplund trace the influences and sensibilities of a contemporary composer's atypical career path and restless imagination. Written in full cooperation with Wolff, including access to his papers, this volume is a much-needed introduction to a leading avant-garde composer still living, writing music, and speaking about his own work. Wolff has pioneered various compositional and notational idioms, including overtly political music, indeterminacy, graphic scores, and extreme virtuosity. Trained as a classicist rather than a musician, Wolff has never quite had both feet in the rarefied world of contemporary composition. Yet he's considered a "composer's composer," with a mind ensconced equally in ancient Greek tragedy and experimental music and an eccentric and impulsive compositional approach that eludes a fixed stylistic fingerprint. Hicks and Asplund cover Wolff's family life and formative years, his role as a founder of the New York School of composers, and the context of his life and work as part of the John Cage circle, as well as his departures from it. Critically assessing Wolff's place within the experimental musical field, this volume captures both his eloquence and reticence and provides insights into his broad interests and activities within music and beyond.

Product Details

About the Author

Michael Hicks is a professor of music at Brigham Young University and the author of Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions and other works. Christian Asplund is an associate professor of music and composer-in-residence at Brigham Young University.

Editorial Reviews

"Presenting Christian Wolff as a quintessential American musical maverick, Michael Hicks and Christian Asplund compellingly argue that Wolff's stature will continue to grow as the historical dust settles. This book is beautifully written and aptly synthesizes discussions of specific works, details about Wolff's life, and the broader context within which he works."--David W. Bernstein, author of The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde

"Insightful and alert. . . . This book serves as a neat little primer for [Wolff's] work."--The Wire

Despite the fact that Wolff is listed in every music history textbook as a member of the so-called New York School alongside John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Earle Brown, he has received relatively little scholarly attention. Hicks and Asplund have made a significant effort to balance the scales with this excellent narrative."-- Notes

From the Publisher

This first biographical treatment of Christian Wolff, the experimentalist composer whom John Cage cited as an essential influence, is a worthy companion to Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas's 2010 Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff, itself primarily a musicological analysis. In treating their subject biographically, Hicks (music, Brigham Young Univ.; Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions) and Asplund (composer-in-residence, Brigham Young Univ.) set the composer's experiments with form and notation in the context of his childhood experience, musical training, and dual interest in music and the classical world. His studies in Europe and associations with other composers of the New York School are detailed, though his relationship with Cage takes its due prominence. The discography is thin—the authors refer readers to Changing the System for a more in-depth treatment—but one senses that the two books are best read as a pair anyway. VERDICT Musicologists, historians of 20th-century music, experimentalist composers and listeners, and music students are all served by this work.—Genevieve Williams, Pacific Lutheran Univ. Lib., Tacoma, WA

Anne Neville was queen to England’s most notorious king, Richard III. She was immortalized by
Shakespeare for the remarkable nature of her marriage, a union which brought together a sorrowing widow with her husband’s murderer. Anne’s misfortune did not end ...

Jungian Insights for the Christian Journey provides insight into the importance of Jungian depth psychology
in actualizing our capabilities for love. Vast psychic energy for love remains as yet untapped and unreleased. What is worse, this immense power is often ...

This book is a companion to my book The Theoretical Solution to the British/Irish Problem,
which gives a suggested constitution for the Federal Kingdom of Ireland and it recognizes a right, center, and left political structure of the Federation. The ...

God knows you ! God loves you !Jesus Christ , the God Man, is real
!!!If you are a born-again Christian, then you can overcome the world through Christ Jesus.No obstacle can stop you to enjoy your abundant life.God will ...

In an age where information is a commodity and financial freedom a much sought after
desire, this book provides both to a subset of society. Targeted at but not exclusively towards the Christian Community it fuses biblical scriptures and principles ...

A sad and humorous story,a sad and happy love.A rock band,with a struggling girl,return to
the spiritual home.The girl Holly was beautiful but ill-fated. Her mother committed suicide when she was three, since then she had tasted the coldness and ...

Hicks (music, Brigham Young U.) traces the music's growth since 1830, examining the changing attitudes
of church officialdom and laity toward popular and non-Western music styles. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Since the dawn of the fifth century, theology students, religious scholars, and Christian readers have
turned to this volume for instruction. Written by one of the foremost leaders in the development of Christian thought, it offers practical as well as ...